Best GPS for Bicycle navigation?

Question

Im going to be cycling across France, dont trust my instincts or abilities to read paper maps - im thinking about the Garmin GPSMaps 60cx as a solution ie something that can give me directions - anyone else had good experiences with GPS devices on bicycles please let me know.

Answer 1

Garmin's "Edge" is their cycling series. Check out, for example, the Edge 605.

Answer 2

I have a Sony Erickson C702 Mobile phone and it has google maps built in. I have used it for cycling and it works very well

Also you can put it to satellite view and then you can see items eg rivers and lakes etc.

And it does route calculation too.

But it is not a true satnav as you need to keep looking at the map ( which is a pain if your driving ) but OK when cycling as your going slower

Note: the battery life is reduced when the GPS is on so you may need additional power or batteries.

And also check out your contract as roaming charges abroad for data can be expensive.

Also it has a camera built in so for cycling it combines the functions of phone,gps sat nav and camera all in one.

Edit Half the enjoyment of cycling is discovery new places so dont get to obsessed with your route too much. just go with the flow and ask locals which are the best roads for cycling and ask any other cyclists you see. Enjoy your cycling. and travel light !

Answer 3

The Garmin Nüvi has on and off-road options and there is a cycle mount available for it. Also some models come with European road maps as standard.

Answer 4

MBR have just done a road test of GPS systems.  They recomend the Garmin 60, so I would probably go with that.

As a cheaper alternative, you might try Nokia sports tracker, which comes free with their GPS phones.

Luck

Answer 5

I work for a bike store, one that sells Garmin products and I'm a Garmin Edge 305 User, I realy rate them. If you can afford to push the boat out then I'd recommend a Garmin Edge 705, it's the ultimate cyclo-computer GPS combo ever... infact to my knowlage it's the only one. The main feature is the fact that it comes with a full colour map display and rout planning features. On my older Garmin 305 model it does not have a full colour map display, rarther just a schematic diagram of the rout to follow and a way point marker that you can follow (almost like tracing a line). It's basic but it works realy well, it's route planning features are not quite so good though.

Along this route a Garmin 605 would also be awesome for the job.

Failing that GPS Enabled mobile phones would do the job, check the cost of network connections to the mobile internet though, sometimes mobile GPS can be expensive to run (to my knowledge).